Have you put a lot of work into building your online shop, only to find your dreams of making money online starting to fade? Don’t give up! This is a marathon, not a sprint. Here are some reasons why most shops fail, and some ideas you can try to fix it!
Traffic
The main reason an online shop is not making money is lack of traffic. Obviously, if your site isn’t getting traffic, no one sees what you have to sell. If they don’t see it, they can’t buy it. The most popular way people use to get traffic when they are first starting is to use paid advertising. While this can be effective, it is by no means a guarantee. Oftentimes visitors to your site will click through because they are curious. Is there anything to hold them on the site after they first land other than the products? See the interest section below.
The Product
Another big possibility that an online shop is not making money could be the product itself. If you are getting lots of traffic but no sales, it could be the pricing or the product itself. Depending on your traffic source, your site may have caught the interest of a visitor, but the product didn’t. With lots of traffic but no sales, you may want to think of diversifying your monetization strategy and think about adding an alternative means of making money, such as affiliate links.
Interest
If your shop is just an array of products, it will not hold interest for long unless you have a popular unique product that someone cannot find anywhere else. Does your shop offer any information or something to hold a visitor’s attention, or does it just scream “BUY FROM ME?” Information will not only help keep visitors’ attention, but it can help bring traffic to your site. If your site doesn’t hold interest, it could be why your site is not making money.
Information will not only help keep visitors attention but it can help bring traffic to your site.
Trust
If I go to your site, do I know who you are? Will I need to look you up to find out, or does the site have an about section to say who you are and a little about you? Do you use the word “WE” a lot on your site? If you are a solopreneur, don’t make your site sound like a big company. Use the word “I” if appropriate.
No Marketing
A lot of vendors I speak to, use ads and social media but really don’t have a marketing plan beyond that. Proper marketing takes time and patience. It takes building customer relationships and occasionally being able to give away a little free help.
Here are some marketing ideas you can try
- Email marketing
- Blog posts to help get traffic
- Search Engine Optimization
- Answering questions on websites like Quora
- Use a marketing checklist
